Psychometric Testing Essay, Research Paper

Because

they make people anxious, psychometric tests have a mythology that is based on

public ignorance.? There are probably

some very ropey psychometric tests around and candidates have little way of

knowing if they are being tested with a reliable one. But once they have sat a

test, it is often commonly said that testing can produce a good degree of

accurate information about the person?s character and how they are likely to

behave at work. It?s self-assessment, after all. However

test producers themselves agree that it is quite possible to fake a

psychometric test. All you have to do is pretend to be someone you are

not.? It involves guessing what the

employer wants, which is not always simple. Employers don?t necessarily want a

million leaders and no followers. Many of the better tests have in-built

mechanisms to guard against fibbers. They ask the same question in a variety of

different ways at different points in the questionnaire and then look for major

discrepancies.? For instance, two

questions, which would hopefully yield similar results, might be to agree or

disagree with the following: ?New

ideas come easily to me? and ?I

find generating new concepts difficult.? Roy

Davis, communications director for the biggest test publisher in the UK ?SHL?, says

that ?Because of the degree of suspicion

around psychometrics, it is important that candidates are told exactly why they

are being tested and to what uses the information will be put. The good

assessor will be encouraging the candidates not to fake it and to explain that

what the test is trying to achieve is getting the right person.. The golden

rule is that a psychometric test should never be used on its own as a sole

basis of selection.? Dr

McHenry, is chairman and owner of Oxford Psychologists Press (OPP) which in the

past 13 years has grown from three people working in a room of his house to an

establishment of 70 staff based in Oxford England.OPP

claims to have provided psychometric tests to two-thirds of FTSE100 companies

but has developed and introduced new tests. These include the ABLE series,

which test the ability to learn and adapt rather than just measure intellect.

The company also has a consultancy arm, Sigma, which provides business

psychology advice in the UK and overseas.?

OPP has flourished in recent years suggesting that psychometric tests be

recognised as an efficient tool for selecting staff. Dr McHenry states that

psychometric testing is anything but a trendy short term

idea, many companies are keen to refine their recruitment processes and to get

it right will test up to 70% of the workforce before any job offer or internal

promotion. Many

people are wary of being ?exposed? by psychometric tests and some bad tests can

deliver negative effects.? The following

is an example extracted from a story in theguardian.co.uk/archive.? Sam

Bruce had completed her MA in investigative journalism when she applied for a

job as a reporter on her local newspaper in the Midlands. At the interview, she

was asked to complete a psychometric test. "I

found the questions way too simplistic. There were things like, ‘Do you like

being with people? – all the time, some of the time or hardly ever?’ It was

difficult to answer because I’m different at different times." Bruce

didn’t get the job and when she received the test results, she was gobsmacked.

"It wasn’t flattering," she says. "I was described as decisive,

aggressive and impatient, among other things. It seemed to be about someone who

wouldn’t be able to work with other people but I work hard to get on with

people. Ironically, I’d applied for the job because I didn’t want to work on my

own."After

regarding many views on the subject of psychometric testing we have found that

many people find it very useful for career advice but many who have had bad

experiences with it too. The problem is that tests are often used in the wrong

way.? When this is done it can cause a

myriad of ill effects not least choosing the wrong employee or obtaining a

false description. It can really knock someone’s confidence too as in Sam?s

case.But

there’s no doubt that it’s a valid way of assessing people if it’s used in the

right way but it should only be part of the whole interview process. You can’t

tell anything from just looking at someone’s profile. Interviewers who spend at

least fifteen minutes elaborating on the test results should usually get more

from the tests. Feedback is crucial. People often find the feedback very

useful, even if they don’t get the job." Corporate acknowledgement of this will help the entire mechanism.